Never before has the $15 billion dollar mobile phone industry been this competitive — cap deals promising mobile phone charges of less than $1 a day; a handset that does everything from making calls to downloading videos, texts or emails — just about everything.
"I think if you shop around for 50-bucks, you can get a good deal", said Doug Purdie from PhoneChoice.
Doug agrees that the deals have never been better. "There are some great unlimited deals around now, where you have unlimited facebook, all the social media is free, unlimited phone calls, so if you shop around and look for unlimited deals you're get good ones", he added.
Phone Choice crunched the numbers of the best mobile phone plans around and came up their top four:
The top choice was Vodafone's Infinite Plan — $45 a month; unlimited calls within Australia; unlimited texts; unlimited social media access, but an additional 1 gig of data download for videos or music.
Next — Optus BYO Cap: $49 a month with $500 credit and 1.5 gig of data download.
Telstra's $49 cap plan offers $400 credit for calls and texts and 1 gig of data download.
While Virgin Mobile's Big Cap 29 offers $450 in credits, claiming less than $1 a day with 200 megabytes of data downloads.
Virgin Mobile's Dan Woodall advises people to shop around carefully and know what you want from your mobile. "There's no doubt that people want to be more mobile. They don't just want to make calls or do texts, they want to be on Facebook, they want to be checking you-tube, they want to be using Google when they're out and about in the streets. And that's why we've seen the explosion in smart phones at the moment", Dan said.
Already 25 million mobiles are operating across the country. With smart phones, now many people have two if not three handsets which has led to a massive increase in the number of people making complaints when their bills blow out.
"If it's too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. Don't get sucked in by what really seems to be a really cheap deal", said Teresa Corbin from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.
Teresa warns people to pay close attention to their phone contracts — the devil is in the detail. "People get tripped up with the exclusions because every cap has exclusions. There are phone numbers that are not included — 1300 1800 numbers — there's only a set number of calls that are covered, so as soon as you reach that limit you are probably paying more", she said.
And with new players entering the mobile phone market, the discount wars may yet enter a new stage. "let's see where we go but these deals at the moment are sensational, there's no doubt about it", Dan said.
"What you really need to know when you go into that shop is how much is the full cost of the plan; how much will you pay if you have to exit the plan; how much are calls going to cost you; and how much are you really paying every month. Just ask those four or five basic questions and make sure you get the answers down in writing", Teresa said.
For More Information:
To compare phone plans and find the best deals:
www.phonechoice.com.au
or any of these companies featured tonight:
www.virginmobile.com.au
www.telstra.com.au/mobile
www.optus.com.au
www.vodafone.com.au
Or ACCAN for information on billing:
www.accan.org.au/uploads/ACCAN%20Ten%20ways%20to%20avoid%20bill%20shock.pdf
